from recent Savannah/Chatham Police incident reports
Officers with the Savannah-Chatham Metro Crisis Intervention Team used “de-escalation” techniques to bring a man to safety after he threatened to jump off the Talmadge Bridge.
Police were called to the bridge shortly after 6 a.m. Nov. 6 after motorists saw the 46-year-old man sitting on the outer ledge of the bridge. When the officers arrived, CIT Officer Shana Williams began talking to the man with the assistance of Lt. Joy Gellately of the Crisis Negotiations Team.
Support was provided by the Savannah Fire Emergency Rescue and the U.S. Coast Guard. The northbound lanes of the bridge were closed for nearly an hour while the negotiators worked with the man.
After about 30 minutes of talking to the officers, the man agreed to come to safety. Paramedics took him to Memorial Health University Medical Center for further evaluation.
• A woman’s 10-year-old son told her that someone held him at gunpoint and took his candy.
The woman said she called 911 immediately after he told her about the incident, but said he forgot to tell her until six hours later. The boy told an officer that he had just gotten off the school bus and was walking home, holding a clear plastic bag with a few pieces of candy in it.
He said he was near East 51st and Capri streets when a juvenile he knew only as “Nick” approached him. The boy said the suspect pointed a gun at his stomach and told him to give him the candy.
The boy said he gave the suspect some of the candy, at which point the suspect walked away, going west on East 51st Street. He said the suspect plays basketball across the street from his house often and said the gun had orange and yellow markings on it and that it looked fake.
A detective also interviewed the boy, then went to a neighbor’s house to find out more about the suspect. The neighbor said he knew where the suspect lived, so he, the boy and the boy’s father rode with officers to suspect’s residence.
The suspect’s mother came to the door. When police asked for him, she had him come to the door and the boy identified him as the person who pointed the gun at him.
When asked if he had pointed a gun at the boy and taken his candy, the suspect admitted that he had. When he was told to get the gun, he returned to his residence and brought it out.
The boy was asked if it was the same gun used in the robbery and said it was. It was a plastic toy gun, silver in color, with an orange tip and green in the middle. The suspect was arrested.
• Two women were walking their children along East Park Avenue when a man drove by them in a reckless manner.
The women told the man he needed to watch how he was driving. He circled the block and confronted the women, jumping out of his truck and asking what they were going to do.
They told him that he needed to leave and watch how he was driving. At that point, the man grabbed a gun and asked them, “What are you going to do?”
One of the women said she couldn’t describe the gun, but said the suspect held it in his right hand. Although the man was armed, neither woman said he pointed the gun at them, but they were concerned he might harm them.
An officer located the man’s residence. His girlfriend told the officer that the man wasn’t home and had just left. A look-out was placed for the man and his truck.
• An officer responded to Augusta Road on a report of someone being struck.
The officer was met by a woman and her son. The woman said her son struck her in the face on the left side when she attempted to stop him from e-mailing his father.
The son said his mother scratched his right forearm with her fingernails as she tried to keep him from sending the e-mail. The woman had a visible bruise on her face, and the son’s arm was scratched. Both refused treatment by EMS.
The officer couldn’t determine who the primary aggressor was, so both were arrested on charges of simple battery. The mother was taken to the Chatham County Detention Center in one squad car, and the son was taken in another. 
